Mehbooba hails Indo-Pak reconciliation process

Updated: Tuesday, January 19, 2016, 8:47 [IST]

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Srinagar, Jan 19: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Jan 18 hoped the rejuvenated reconciliation process between India and Pakistan would give a new direction to efforts for ensuring peace and stability in the region.

Welcoming the rapprochement between Iran and the West, Mehbooba, who is tipped to be the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir succeeding her late father Mufti Sayeed, said that Tehran's historic nuclear deal with the world powers has made it clear that there is no alternative to the process of engagement and reconciliation.

"Fortunately the latest understanding between the world powers and Iran coincides with renewed engagement between New Delhi and Islamabad, and we hope that the rejuvenated reconciliation process would give a new direction to the efforts aimed at ensuring peace and stability in the region," she said in a statement here.

She expressed the hope that the new geo-political scenario emerging in the region would expand the ambit of economic and trade cooperation between India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran and allow these countries to exploit the wide array of opportunities available for boosting economic growth.

A cooperative relationship in the region could also lead to peaceful and ultimate settlement of the contentious issues plaguing their growth, she said. Mehbooba said for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, peace and stability in the region is of utmost importance as they have been the worst sufferers of the hostility.

"Our enterprising young boys and girls have been deprived of the massive benefits of globalization and economic liberalization that swept the world during the past two decades when our state was embroiled in a bleeding conflict," she said adding that the latest reconciliatory process has generated a new hope for peace and stability in the region which, if sustained, could throw up new economic opportunities for our people.

She said it has been the consistent opinion of PDP that security and stability in Jammu and Kashmir is possible only in a space provided by amity, friendship and cooperative relationship between India and Pakistan.

PDP's vision of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir, outlined in its 'Self-Rule' document, is essentially about neutralizing the historical political and economic excesses with the state that were compounded by its natural and political geography, she said.

Mehbooba said reviving Jammu and Kashmir's traditional connectivity with outside world could pave the way for economic and social integration of the region through a common economic market.